Renaissance High School
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Renaissance High School is a public high school located within the city of Detroit, Michigan. It was founded in 1978 on the previous site of Catholic Central High School. Its first senior class graduated in 1981. A new building for the school, on the site of the former Sinai Hospital, was dedicated in 2005. Part of the Detroit Public School system, Renaissance is one of three magnet high schools in the city. As originally envisioned, a test was administered annually to eighth grade students from public and non-public schools in the area. A combination of the student's grades in junior high school and the score the student received on the test determined admission into the school. That policy continued into the early 1990's. Transfer students were not allowed to attend Renaissance either. These policies have been somewhat relaxed, however, and transfer students are allowed to attend the school, although they must abide by the same graduation requirements as other students.
When Renaissance was initially founded, community members were concerned that reliance on a standardized test would result in the school's admitting too few Black students. Quotas were established such that at least 40% of the school's students were Black. In 2006, more than 90% of the student body is of African descent.
Renaissance High School has been awarded numerous awards for its excellence, most notably in 1999 in an article published by US News and World Report about America's top high schools. Renaissance was also awarded the Michigan Blue Ribbon and the National Ribbon of honor in 2002. Renaissance has world renowned choral and instrumental music departments, and has been internationally recognized for its academic programs. 100% of seniors attend a 4-year college or university.
The school has produced some talented athletes as well, including Kentucky basketball player Joe Crawford, Oregon basketball player Malik Hairston, both All-Americans, Oregon basketball player and Michigan All-Stater Tajuan Porter, and Michigan football players Carson Butler and Andre Criswell. In 2004, the Phoenix Boys Basketball team captured the Michgan Class B state championship title. They repeated the feat in 2006, and the girl's basketball team won the state championship as well.
In 2005, the school moved onto a $100 million+ campus, complete with 600-seat auditorium, state-of-the-art language and computer labs, a 2,000 seat, multi-level gym, and state-of-the-art football field. The building has been recognized as the first Silver-LEED certified building in the city of Detroit for meeting high environmental standards. Features include solar collectors, a rainwater harvest system, and innovative cooling systems.
Renaissance is a sports power house in the state of Michigan, having been the first school in Detroit to ever win girls and boys basketball state championships in the same year.The Renaissance Junior Varsity sports are also exceptionally well. their boys J.V. basketball team was also a powerhouse being led by sophmores Xavier Walker as well as the sophmore Ian Jenkins. They also had two of the best shooters in the state Deante Alexander (known from Cam'ron's Diplomats) and also Joshua Cardwell. The girls track team has won nine of the last ten state championships as of the end of the 2006 season. The varsity football team has earned 9 straight state playoff appearances and have been invited out of the state to play in Indiana. The varsity softball team has won numerous city championships in recent years, as have the girls soccer teams, and boys and girls golf. The varsity baseball team is a perennial city power, having won several city championships in the past decade. The boys soccer team has been on the path to credibility in recent years, led by sophomores Brandon Keeler, Andrew Goddeeris, Michael Verano, Iman Abutaleb, Lucas Zilioli, Rashad Brown, Judah David, Phillip Bowman, and Stefon Cooper Langhorne. The debate team is number 1 in the city of Detroit, being led by sophmores Constance-Marie James, Vana Clay, Stefon Cooper Langhorne, Cristopher Wasson(Nostrils), and with freshmen talent Aaron, Ahmad, and Kaitlyn. Not Robert. Renaissance is also home to the JROTC Cougar Battalion, the only JROTC school that participates in the Harvard Model United Nations program.
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Also the Model United Nations is on its way to victory lead by junior Jillian Welker and Sophmore Andrew Godderris.
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